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Listen below as I break down one of the most important WWE pay-per-views in history for over 30 minutes and discuss what I liked, what I didn't like and I fully express my opinion on Nikki Bella's heel turn, The Shield members continuing to exceed expectations, Brock Lesnar dismantling John Cena and more.

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supercilious1

That was a good Richard Reacts. Thanks Richard. I want to discuss how WWE will book Brock Lesnar going forward. Anyone that watched last night might be wondering how on earth anyone can give Brock a run for his money or at least put up a competitive match against him. The thing WWE will try to sell to the audience going forward is that Brock was so dominant over John Cena for one big reason: he only competes a few times a year. Some of you might get annoyed with this reasoning but in reality it’s a valid reason to use. Last night is the most dominant you will ever see Brock Lesnar be on this current run with the WWE Championship. As Brock has to defend the WWE Championship more he will start to look more vulnerable. As he defends the title more his matches will get more competitive. Why? Brock will be working a WWE schedule. By booking Brock like this it makes his opponents look good (up and coming stars) and it also puts over the WWE wrestlers who work a rigorous schedule. It also gives fans hope that someone could be on the verge of beating Brock. Defending the title every month (or every other month) will force Brock to eventually run out of gas. Then at WM 31 someone will conquer Brock Lesnar. Whoever that person is needs to convincingly beat Brock Lesnar. This is how you book Brock Lesnar from now until WM 31.

Jason

Not sure if that’s the route creative will go in but that’s a decent enough of an idea and makes sense. As long as Bryan is the one to beat Brock then I’m totally cool with him going over everyone else the way he did last night

supercilious1

And what if Bryan’s health does not get better? Would they really give Bryan another WM push when its possible he doesnt have much time left in the ring? Bryan is a great talent but I dont think he is good enough to deserve to beat Brock. We have to remember that Brock is carrying the legacy of ending the streak. So is Bryan good enough to deserve all that? I would rather see someone young who has years of greatness ahead of them defeat Brock.

I think Brock will defeat a returning Bryan at the Royal Rumble. Bryan will push Brock to the limit

Gary Robert

Bryan is the type of character who can win by having a long match with Brock filled with near miss pin falls and coming back from punishment time and time again but eventually to lose.

Ben

Bryan is the best overall worker in the company if he’s actually healthy. The problem I have with him beating Brock is it would physically look ridiculous considering he’s pint-sized compared to Cena. It wouldn’t be believable for Bryan to survive that kind of beating. I was all for Bryan beating Lesnar before last night, but the way he was booked it’s going to take someone who can physically match up with Lesnar to beat him. Sadly, that’s probably The Rock.

Cubed56

DB should absolutely not be the one to beat Brock.

Anon

They should have Brock keep the belt and squash everyone (even if it’s more than a year or even two) until a worthy guy emerges that can take it from him, a new Hogan/Austin/Rock/Cena…if someone is forced into that role (Reigns atm) people won’t buy into it long term. As far as Bryan goes, that’s one thing they shouldn’t do because he could legitimately get hurt in a match with Lesnar…

John

My only complaint about SummerSlam is that they gave AJ and Paige less than 5 minutes to work. No wonder women’s matches are treated like the ‘bathroom break’ match.

Robert

It’s great that Richard discussed how to book Brock Lesnar going forward. However, I think we need to discuss how to proceed with John Cena going forward. The reality is that Cena, the 15-time champion and greatest champion of this era, was completely and utterly demolished last night. I can’t see any plausible way that they can book John Cena right now the same way they have been booking him for the last 10 years. To do so would undermine the rest of the WWE roster including any potential challengers to Lesnar. However, they can’t make Cena look so weak that he goes under to everybody.

Mike McCarthy

It’s time for Cena to have a go at the Tag Titles. I might be in the minority but it would be a fresh program for Cena to work with, and with a partner some of the focus would be taken off his beating at SS.

Malboja

Just curious but dose anyone remember the last time Brock lost the title
It was to Eddie
And Eddie was getting a worse beating than cena when Goldberg speared lesnar
Bryan could weather the storm and have someone ambush lesnar and him pick up the pieces

TheInsaneKlown

Was I the only one who enjoyed the Swagger Vs Rusev match?

AB

I’m not a fan of JBL’s commentary in general. I find it obnoxious in a bad way, rather than being amusing, and it often seems like he doesn’t know whether he’s a face, a tweener, or a heel. To that end, he flip flops a lot, and often has to furiously backpedal or say something really stupid to shift into an antagonistic role.

However…I think the main issue with the Tiger Woods crack is that it’s pretty dated at this point. Sure, it’s a bit on the nose if Bryan himself isn’t really cool with it, but if nothing else, it’s referencing a scandal that’s going on five years old. Instead of being a witty remark, it comes across as corny and behind the times. When you’re going to make a controversial pop culture reference/comparison, it either has to be old enough to be a classic example, or current enough to be relevant. I think Tiger Woods’ scandal is somewhere between the two at this time, so it comes off as dated instead of classic.

I guess I shouldn’t be disappointed with the obvious Nikki heel turn, but I was holding out some hope that they’d swerve us by avoiding the obvious swerve. Instead, we have The Authority standing triumphant again, Brie doesn’t get her revenge, and someone else joins The Authority just because they’re The Authority. Same old story with The Authority, they’re just too powerful. They need to watch some classic Austin/Vince stuff on the Network (only $9.99 a month!), and see why it worked: because Vince got embarrassed and his ass kicked a lot. There was balance.

Loved Ambrose/Reigns. I expected the match to be good, but I thought the lumberjack stipulation was disappointing. Turns out, they made it work, probably as well or better than any lumberjack match I’ve ever seen. Hilarious moment with Kane’s weak slap on Goldust though; once again, his character has lost its teeth.

I get what they were going for with Lesnar/Cena, it had a good purpose and it worked, but…it just didn’t appeal to me personally. I think they could’ve done the same thing if they’d had a competitive match before, and then Lesnar just destroyed him at the end. The match was just too one-sided, too slow-paced for my taste. I get why they did it, I understand why people like it – and I can appreciate the sheer brutality of it – but I don’t think they needed to do it that way, it wasn’t really to my liking. But that’s just me I guess, so it is what it is.

I just hope that they handle it well moving forward. Obviously, you need to have Lesnar look strong and dominant, but you also need his opponents to look like they’re credible. Otherwise, it’s like the nWo after they’d been winning for too long and making the WCW contingent look weak and pathetic: the outcome is too predictable, the antagonist too powerful. It’s the same problem with The Authority, and it’s the polar opposite of the Cena problem, where he’s a Boring Invincible Hero, or when Goldberg was WCW champion and just squashing jobbers who were laughably somehow the “number one contender”.

You can lose intrigue and interest when one side is just too strong, so I hope they handle it with some balance moving forward. Again, I understand why they did it, but I have some concerns about the booking moving forward, and the match just wasn’t too my tastes. Not for a big title match, anyway. But I understand that I’m in the minority here, and could very well be proven wrong by the long-term booking.

Ben

The more I’ve thought about it the more I agree with your take on Lesnar/Cena. The match was executed perfectly and I enjoyed it a lot, but it really complicates booking going forward. What challenger is even going to believable after he annihilated the top guy in the company? I would like to think they have a plan but I’m not sure what it is, other than feeling pretty confident he’ll end up facing The Rock at WM 31… ugh.

AB

And that’s the problem they’re potentially facing: you’ve just had Lesnar brutally defeat the face of the company without breaking a sweat (well, figuratively speaking). You pretty much have to keep having him squash people, which potentially means any and every championship match between now and Wrestlemania is basically going to be the same thing. There’s no intrigue there, no unpredictability, no “anything can happen in the WWF/E!” as Vince used to say all the time.

Will that sell the Network ($9.99!), the prospect of basically seeing the same match over and over for the next six to eight months? I’m not sure that it does. Short term, it achieves its goal, and was a brutal spectacle that most people seem to have enjoyed (and again, I can appreciate it in parts; it just wasn’t wholly to my taste). But long-term, they need to be careful, otherwise Lesnar will have no credible opponents and his angles and matches will be too predictable.

It’s the same problem as Super Cena always overcoming the odds and winning all the time, just at the other end of the spectrum.

hawk

I like the idea of The Champion only defending every now and then and not tagging on raw or opening every week. You want to see the champion you pay. Lesnar doesnt even have to show up to build it. it would help ppv sales or network buys..

This would allow the undercard to get serious tv time and put on to draw matches like Reigns/Ambrose…….in he falls count anywhere no dq street fight.

I dont think cena should go for the rematch straight away and take some time off…….so his come back means something but they will have a gimmick rematch as night of champions………